Yesterday, Araminta turned 2. She has been excited about birthdays ever since Jeff’s last month and woke us up at 6 am.

After a shower and breakfast, we opened some presents.

A card from Grandma in Perth.

Some stickers (that we had to try out straight away).

She liked the purple teddy from Grandma, it went to bed with her that night. The rubbish bin is there at Araminta’s insistence. She got most distressed that there was nowhere to put the wrapping paper.

Araminta has been showing a strong interest in learning her letters, and she can recognize a fair few now, so Mummy and Daddy bought her some flashcards.

They were a hit.

Also a big hit was the tractor puzzle book. Check out the expression on her face.

This is one of my favourite photos of the day – seeing her new baby for the first time.

Grandma sent Mummy some money and we bought Araminta a stroller for her new baby.

Nana and Poppy came for lunch. They bought Araminta a lovely book and some beautiful new clothes.

We had mushroom raviolli for lunch with pesto sauce and broccoli and carrots, with crusty bread. Araminta had two servings. After lunch there was cake that Mummy made.

Singing “Happy Birthday”

Blowing out the candle.

Finally, a new jumper that Mummy knitted.

It was a wonderful birthday.

We recently took a drive out to see the wildflowers. We were a bit early for the big, spectacular displays, but it was still a lovely day out. I should note that Araminta has had a haircut since these pictures were taken…

Araminta loved the boardwalk at this nature reserve.

Here she is contemplating the flowers. It’s obviously a serious business.

She loved the daisies -

and smelling them.

There were also lilies.

Which also got smelt.

Just after I took this picture Araminta got upset by the soft marshy ground and we had to return to the car where the ground was firmer.

Her speech is coming a long in leaps and bounds. Her latest phrase in response to a question is: “Yes I do”.

She can also count to three fairly consistently, though she starts muddling up the numbers past three so we have “fun, twoooo, three, eight” but the one to three is there.

She hasn’t stopped talking about Grandma and Grandpa and Cayliss and Esther since we got back. When we showed Araminta the photos from the trip she said: “Strayla” so she knows where she has been.

We miss you guys.

We had a wonderful trip to Australia. Araminta travelled very well and even slept for about half of the flight from Johannesberg to Perth.

Here she is on the flight from Cape Town to Johannesberg.

Sleeping on the flight to Perth. The plane was really empty and we had 4 seats to ourselves. I only got one picture of her like this, because the flash caused her to stir, and I didn’t want to risk waking her up.

In Perth we had a great time. Araminta visited the wildlife park where Ruth’s brother works, and she got to feed kangaroos and pat koalas.

From Perth we stopped briefly in Brisbane and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s place in Grafton. Araminta was very excited to see wild kangaroos and wallabies and she loved helping Grandma feed one each morning.

She also loved being pulled around the yard by Daddy and Grandpa in the billycart.

She fed the chooks

and picked mandarins.

She loved mandarins so much that in the end we had to put a limit on how many she could eat a day.

We then left Grafton and returned to Brisbane where we had a lovely time visiting her cousins and uncles and aunties. All of the pictures from Brisbane have cousins in them and I’m not sure how the parents would feel about their kids plastered on the internet, so no pictures from then.

On the plane ride home Araminta made great use of the free eyemask

and helped Mummy watch the luggage in Jo’berg airport.

We were very tired when we got home, and we miss all our friends and family terribly.

Here is a picture of Araminta in a hat and jumper that Ruth made.

And here she is carrying her baby in a sling.

She had a hair cut last week and we bought her some hairclips as well. She insisted that Jeff put all of them in her hair.

Recently we bought Araminta a new book that makes sounds. It’s a big hit.

See her pants? They are size 6-12 months, and we still need to roll them up. She’s a petite little thing. Daddy bought the spotty pants.

Recently Ruth took delivery of 200 stuffed bears from the Netherlands which she delivered with a friend to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, and to a local hospice/orphanage.

Araminta loved the bears, and had a bit of a hard time understanding that they weren’t for her.  Sonnja the maker of the bears very kindly gave one to her.

She loves it.

We counted up all the words Araminta can say. It’s about 59, and includes telephone, buffalo, cracker, wool and quilt.

We are really looking forward to being home in Australia soon. Especially since our water supply broke on Saturday and they are predicting that it will take a week to fix. I’m getting very tired of flushing the toilet with a bucket and having sponge baths…

I thought you might like to see a picture of Araminta all dressed up ready for church.

She looks like a real little girl when she lets us put a clip in her hair (and keeps it in for more than 5 minutes).

Jeff and I recently took Araminta camping. It was a great opportunity for us to try out our new (second-hand) tent. It’s great, and it has space for Araminta’s cot.

In the cot are just some of the toys that she insists go to bed with her each night. There is a core 5 and then one or two favourites from the day…

We went out for lunch in a near-by town. Araminta looked very lady-like and was exceptionally well behaved, given that we had to wait over an hour for our food and she was hungry.

Araminta loves feeding herself, and she loves yoghurt. Here’s a combination of the two:

She’s getting quite good at managing the spoon.

Araminta is growing fast. She has always had good fine motor control & while she still prefers to use her fingers to eat with (I guess it’s quicker!) she is able to use a fork & spoon with some precision. Here’s a short video of her in action:

Araminta’s love affair with hats continues. Here she’s modelling one that Ruth recently finished. (It’s not for her, but she’s fascinated by it.)

I’ve been saying it for months, but I swear she’s getting a haircut on Wednesday…

She’s still eating like a champ. If she feels that we have not provided enough food she will hold out the bowl with both hands and plead “Moooore”.

We had to buy new pyjama’s this week, she’s too long for the 3 to 6 month size now and so is wearing 6 – 12 months size. They fit lengthwise, but she swims a bit in them as she’s such a skinny little thing.

Once again it’s been too long between updates.

First some pictures:

Ruth knitted Araminta a new hat.

What, you are more interested in seeing Araminta?! OK…

She likes hats. We make sure that she always has a sun hat on when we go outside and she’ll often fish one of them out of the drawer to wear around the house.

Araminta has added some new words to her vocabulary. She now says door, bath (her version of bath) and up (her version of up).  She is also threading beads onto shoelaces and can put shapes into the tupperware ball if you point out which one it goes in – she’s able to rotate theshape to fit.

It seems that we have a girly girl on our hands, in addition loving hats and bags, she also has a thing for shoes and insists on having her shoes changed several times a day. I’m trying to tell her that we don’t wear shoes inside the house, but she insists that we do.

I made Araminta a new quilt.

Here she is still in her pyjamas checking it out.

Lastly, Araminta’s first encounter with a snake went well.

This was at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.